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A.M. #2: Detroit

Posted Jan 21, 2013
by Aaron Portzline

On Saturday, as the Blue Jackets were pulling out a 3-2 shootout win in Nashville, the Detroit Red Wings were getting their noses rubbed in the dirt with a 6-0 loss to the St. Louis Blues. Of all the scores from the NHL's opening day, that's the one that leaped off the page.

It creates a compelling backdrop as the Blue Jackets play their home opener against the Red Wings in Nationwide Arena. The game is sold out. It is on national TV. Fireworks are expected.

"We better be ready to go," Blue Jackets coach Todd Richards said. "This is a team that knows how to win. A lot of pride. Good leadership. We’re going to get their best tonight. They’re going to respond to that game they had the other night in St. Louis. We’re going to get their best game, so we have to be ready to go."

The Blue Jackets will play the same lineup as Saturday in Nashville. Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, who starred in his Jackets debut against the Predators, will make his second consecutive start, and all the lines and pairs appear intact.

Much has been made of the hits the Red Wings have taken in recent months.

Defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom and winger Tomas Holmstrom has retired, leaving the Wings without the man who controlled the back end impeccably and the man who disrupted the crease like few others in recent history. (Goalies everywhere celebrated Holmstrom's retirement.)

Beyond this, the Red Wings have been ravaged by injures. Todd Bertuzzi, Darren Helm, Jonas Gustavsson and Jan Mursak are all injured. Defenseman Jonathan Ericsson is questionable with a shoulder injury after tripping over a puck during practice yesterday. He's a game-time decision.

Still, the Blue Jackets are wary.

"They're going to be a lot better tonight, and everybody knows it," Blue Jackets defenseman Jack Johnson said. "Everybody is making a big deal out of losing Lidstrom, and it is a big deal. He's the best defenseman to ever play the game. That's a huge loss. But there's a lot of other proven, excellent players over there, too. They're still a real good team."

The Blue Jackets have undergone sweeping changes, too. Red Wings coach Mike Babcock was asked if he quite knew what to expect of his Central Division neighbor.

"They’ve been a team on the rise, even though people on the outside don’t see that. They’ve been a team getting better each and every year. They had injuries last year and things got off kilter. But they’re a team that’s been getting better and better. Their top four D with Johnson, Wisniewski, Tyutin and Nikitin – suddenly they have a top 4 D that you look at and say ‘Geez, that’s a top-4 D.’

"I don’t know which is their third line or second line. Anisimov's line, that’s an energy group for them. That could be their third line. Johansen, as he gets older and more mature, he’s going to be a first- or second-line center in the league. But that’s part of growing up. And their fourth group, with MacKenzie, they’re worker bees, those guys. They’re going to be hard to play against."

Richards was mostly thrilled with Saturday's performance. There were mistakes, too, but the energy and passion of his players matched the pre-season promises made by the Blue Jackets, starting with president of hockey operations John Davidson.

The Blue Jackets' play allowed Richards to roll four lines. He hopes to keep it up tonight.

"We don’t want to get too comfortable with ourselves," We haven’t progen anything yet. It’s a great step. But tonight’s a night when we have to take another step.

"You don’t always want to reflect back on (last year), but you have to learn from it. It did happen, so you have to deal with it. It’s a great attitude to have. I think everyone in there has a tremendous amount of pride. Now it has to come out in their play."

Side dishes:

-- Tonight's game starts at 7:30 p.m. because it's airing on NBC Sports Network. It is suggested that fans be in their seats earlier than usual tonight to allow for the "opening night" type stuff.

-- Will be interesting to see how the Blue Jackets match up with Detroit tonight. Nashville's lines are constructed similarly to the Blue Jackets, with mixtures of speed and scoring and grit across the top three lines. So to determine a clear checking line was not easy. That likely won't be the case tonight. The Red Wings will have Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg on the same line tonight. Clearly, that line will be the focus of the Blue Jackets' checking efforts.

-- Richards was impressed with Bobrovsky on Saturday. He allowed a goal on the first shot of the game -- it may have been deflected -- and there were some large, bouncy rebounds early. But as the game moved along, Bobrovsky was sharp. Giving him the nod for a second straight start seemed an easy decision. "I saw a confident goaltender," Richards said. "The way the game started, it could have been really easy to say 'Oh no, here we go again.' But Sergei buckled down. He played great for us in the final 59 minutes of the game, and it was the group in front of him, too. I saw a calm, confident goaltender."

-- Every team is preaching the importance of having two sharp goaltenders this season. When, then, might Steve Mason make his 2013 debut? "I talked with both of them before the season," Richards said, referring to Bobrovsky and Mason. The plan is … we’re going to need both goaltenders. But I also did say that if one of them gets on some kind of hot streak and the schedule is set up that we can ride them, that’s what we’ll do. We haven’t made a decision. We have back-to-backs in Phoenix and Colorado after this, but right now our focus is here and once this game is over with we’ll start making plans for Phoenix."

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